Seniors, I am going to pose a question to you. Who did you think you would become during college? Did you change in the ways that you thought you would? Maybe you had no idea what college would hold and how much you would change. I can imagine that most people look back and are amazed at how much different they are. The person you were during high school might seem unrecognizable. Maybe that’s a good thing, maybe not. Even one semester of college can change you immensely, for better or worse. Loras College firmly implants the “Become the best version of yourself” motto into our heads. We are reminded not to settle for less than we could be, to always keep striving to make the best decisions possible. You will now have to remind yourself of that goal instead of hearing it day after day. How much closer have you become to becoming the “best version of yourself” during your college years?

Now you are on to another chapter of your life. Change can be painful, but it’s needed and often a very good thing. Change is the only inevitable part of life. Some of you have probably been suffering from senioritis for over a year. Others of you don’t want to leave or may have ambivalent feelings about the next chapter of your life. Embrace the adventure of not knowing exactly what’s next. Life is an open book, the next chapter blank and just waiting to be written. Don’t be afraid to let life shape you. Maybe you’ll go to the other side of the world, meet the person of your dreams, or end up doing a career that you love and never thought you would do. No matter whether your life is one of adventure or equanimity, expected or unexpected, you will be shaped and changed by your experiences. Let the experiences in your life shape you for the better. May troubles strengthen you and your joys help you realize your blessings. In every situation, strive to be the best version of yourself.  You may change in ways you never thought possible.

Good luck as the next chapter of your life is written! You will be missed at Loras College!

Are you a people-pleaser? If not, good for you. Unfortunately, I think that all of us have been a people-pleaser at one point or another. For some of us, it might be part of our personality. Let me make it clear that I think it’s good to make your parents and other important adults in your life proud. Of course, it’s good to seek to have a good reputation as well. It is good to have harmonious relationships. But there’s a point when life becomes a task of pleasing others and seeking their approval. Our lives were not made to please everyone or agree with everyone.

Over time, seeking the approval of others chips the core of who you are. You forget who you are and might just try to please everyone, losing yourself in the process. One example that almost every person will have faced is not speaking up when something is wrong, or pretending you agree that with someone when you really don’t. It’s easy to get caught up in the trap of not speaking up when something is wrong. This means that we place ourselves open to ridicule and being disliked if others don’t agree with us. Yet isn’t justice and speaking up for what is right more important than whether a person likes us at that moment? It’s pointless to seek approval from everyone. I am sure that you don’t approve of everyone, so not everyone will approve of you. No matter how hard you try, it just won’t happen. I would much rather have people like me for who I am than who I am not.

The fact is, not everyone is going to like you. The only thing that matters is that you are becoming the person God created you to be and finding peace with your decisions. Dr. Seuss sums it up well:  “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” A life well-lived is a valuable treasure, while the approval of others can be snatched away at any moment. Search for those people in your life who truly accept you, but also help you to grow as a person. Cherish those people who you know will still be by your side when you mess up and who love you despite your differences. No matter what, you can’t make everyone happy.

It really bothers me when people assume that college students must only get four hours of sleep each night and frequently pull all-nighters. Maybe this is true for some people, but it definitely isn’t healthy. It is true that the majority of college students don’t get enough sleep. However, this is not as trivial a matter as one might think. Lack of sleep, especially over time, can have serious repercussions.

 Sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough hours in a day. As college students, we are some of the busiest people on Earth. We have so many commitments pulling us here and there. Unfortunately, we tend to cut one of the most necessary things from our day when things get busy: our sleep. Maybe you’re thinking that no one has time to sleep. There is a lot to do, sometimes too many good things.  With prioritizing and good time management, you can get enough sleep. If you just don’t find it possible to get enough shut-eye, maybe you are involved in too much.

In addition to your physical functioning, sleep also has an effect on your social, emotional, and academic functioning. Some people get crabby or more emotional when they don’t get enough sleep. It’s also harder to concentrate on schoolwork when you are tired. Productivity and quality of work tend to decrease if you have not gotten enough sleep. Then you end up staying later to get things done, and the cycle continues. Lack of sleep can even compromise your immune system and make you more likely to get sick. That will put you even more behind on your to-do list. Why do we deprive ourselves of sleep when it is so vital to our functioning?

So make sleep a priority no matter how busy you are. I am not saying that you should make your bedtime every night. It’s not realistic. Some of the best conversations happen when you should be going to bed. There are weeks when things just happen to put you behind. It isn’t always possible to get to bed when you should. But overall, it is definitely a good decision to get to bed on time. Sometimes it’s a sacrifice to go to bed at a decent hour, but it’s a sacrifice that is well worth making. Your body will thank you, and you will be able to live a life of vitality and tackle whatever it is that comes your way. Try to get at least 8 hours of sleep each night. As you study for finals and do final papers, it will be easier to work when you feel refreshed. Sweet dreams to you as you seek to get the rest your body needs for a healthy, happy you.

Sleep Facts from National Sleep Foundation

Sleep deprivation over time has been linked to health problems such as negative mood, decreased productivity, and safety issues

Many scientific studies have shown correlations between poor or insufficient sleep and diseases, including obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes

As you get older, you may wake more frequently through the night and get less nighttime sleep, but your need for sleep is no less than before

Do you have a love-hate relationship with technology, especially our laptops? I both love and hate it. There are great things about technology. Our generation wouldn’t know how to function without computers or cell phones. It has improved the ease of many necessary parts of life, such as looking for a job, banking or registering for classes (well, some might argue about that last one).  In other ways, technology has complicated and cluttered our lives.

I don’t know if there are other campuses where every student receives a laptop, but I think it’s awesome that every student at Loras receives a laptop. It is useful when it comes to writing papers or researching. Here, though, it is also a distraction. It can be hard to focus on researching when the World Wide Web is right there, waiting to answer almost any question you have that is not related to the research you should be doing. It is overwhelming to have so much information at your fingertips. Looking up one thing can turn into 10. While even a few decades ago, people might have thought the idea of internet was crazy. Now we have almost any information available at our fingertips. You can find nearly any info you want in a matter of seconds or minutes. Who could have known? It really is amazing and a blessing. However, there are other annoyances that accompany technology.

Have you ever wished that your email inbox could just be totally empty? I definitely have! While I love getting new mail, I feel sometimes that I can never be totally disconnected from my email. There always seem to be emails that need to be answered. I have devised a folder system for all my emails, but now I have what seems like a billion folders. Especially in this beautiful spring weather, I hate being glued to the screen, writing papers or replying to e-mails. I sometimes wish that computers had never been invented. While e-mail has improved the ease of communication, it can be an annoyance and time-consuming.

In short, I love technology, and I hate it. This world is very technologically-based, which has improved the ease and quality of many aspects of our lives. In the future, though, I hope that the world can find a way to balance the use of technology and not need to be so dependent on it. Maybe we can become more connected with the greater world and each other than with technology. Now, I think it’s time I get off this computer and go outside.

The mention of spring break causes many students to conjure up images of a sunny beach somewhere. This daydream involves lazing on the beach and soaking up the sun, listening to the rise and fall of the waves, all the while forgetting about schoolwork and the other stressors that are inevitably a part of life. It sounds like paradise. For some students, spending spring break in a tropical location will be a reality. Working on a tan may be a part of the plan.

I am sure that your daydreams of tanning on a sunny beach do not include increasing your risk of a diagnosis of skin cancer. Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that we are invincible because we are young. What we do to our bodies now doesn’t matter, because we have plenty of time later on to take care of ourselves properly. However, the way that we treat our bodies now does have an affect on our futures—and maybe even on how much longer our future will turn out to be.

It is easy to forget to put on sunscreen.  And yes, it does take a little extra time. The sunshine beckons, and the waves are just calling your name. It may not be until your skin has been painfully burned or you see that you’ve developed tan lines that you remember you should have donned the sunscreen. Like many Americans, you might be trying to get a tan. While a tan may be beautiful by some people’s standards, skin cancer is not. It can be disfiguring or unattractive. It can even be deadly, especially in the case of melanoma.

Don’t ditch your tropical vacation or skip your time glorying in the sunshine. Remember to slather on sunscreen. Yes, that means sacrificing your tan (and maybe sunburn and peeling skin, too). But we should know by now that beauty is much more than skin deep. And isn’t possibly preventing skin cancer and living a long, healthy life more attractive than a tan that will soon fade away?

H

ave you ever wondered what you would have ended up like in an alternate life? It’s an interesting question to think about. What if you had chosen to go to a different college? How would you have changed? What people would you have met? Would you have been happier or less happy? How much of you is simply you and will always be there, and how much has been influenced by your surroundings?

It can be tempting to wish you would have chosen a different path, especially when things aren’t going quite how you want them to. However, there is a reason this path is the one you ended up on. There must have been some reason you chose it in the first place. No matter what you would have chosen, there would have been problems.

It’s easy to play the comparison game, but it’s so futile. Don’t be jealous of others’ lives or paths. It is so amazing to think that there has never been another person exactly like you in the history of the world. Every person is irreplaceable. The exact role you are meant to play in the world has not been and cannot be completed by another person.

Think about the opportunities your life affords you. Especially living in America, we have countless opportunities that most people in the world do not have. We’re spoiled, and yet I think that we complain about the stupidest things. You go to a distinguished college. You have opportunities to look for a job. Many people in the world do not have the opportunity for even a basic education, or to send out their resume to numerous companies. Speaking of which, a “resume” is foreign to many living in poverty across the world. Having a resume is something to be happy about, even though it may not land you your dream job right away.

Instead of focusing on the negatives, count your blessings. No matter what you have been through or are going through, there are beautiful things in your life. Hold onto the moments and people in your life that bring you joy. No life is perfect. Don’t waste life away wishing you were someone else or wishing things were different. Yours is the only life you have. Be happy with it and open your eyes to the beauty.

Have you ever heard someone say something like, “Maybe that’s right for you, but not for me”?

That type of thinking is very common these days. However, there are flaws in thinking that way. There has to be right and wrong, truth and fiction. When it comes to what music you prefer, car model you like to drive, or what you order at a restaurant, different things do work better for different people. In certain other situations, there are gray areas. There isn’t always a right or wrong. However, there are some things that are always right or wrong. Murder is wrong. Using someone as an object for your own sexual pleasure is wrong as well. Getting drunk on purpose is one more example of a choice that is wrong.

Do you remember learning how to treat others when you were young? Your teachers or parents told you that it wasn’t right to snatch a toy from another child. They disciplined you in whatever way they thought best in order to get what was right or wrong into your head. When we’re young, we accept that there is right and wrong. Kids usually have a good sense of when they have done something wrong. When we get older, it seems like we forget what we learned as kids. Many people begin to forget the concepts of right and wrong.

We’re so afraid to step on each other’s toes. We have learned to be politically correct and to let others make their own choices. In reality, this is not always the kind thing to do. Would you step back and watch your best friend jump into a fire? Of course not! You would pull them back and not let them get hurt. Unfortunately, sometimes (or maybe quite often) we do let our friends get hurt. We don’t feel like we can say anything. We don’t want them to get mad at us.

For example, maybe your friend told you they planned on getting drunk. Letting one’s friends drink themselves to drunkenness is not the kind thing to do. Getting drunk doesn’t help them in any way. In fact, it puts them in great danger. It doesn’t help those around them either—especially if they drive while drunk or become aggressive. There are definitely actions and lifestyle choices that are not right. They bring pain to the person doing them and to others as well. We are all human beings, and some choices, by their nature, are harmful to every human being.

Don’t buy it next time someone says something like “maybe that’s right for you, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for me” when they’re trying to justify a choice that will hurt them or others. Doing what is right is not always popular or accepted. It may not be the most convenient thing. Sometimes the truth is scary. It might make others angry. It might make us challenge what we’ve believed for most of our lives. Maybe it means changing our lives drastically. Don’t be afraid. Open your eyes and ears to seek the truth. Do you remember the old saying, “the truth will set you free”? Well, it’s the truth.

Every two years, the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) hosts a conference on the national level. This is a time where college students are invited to take some time, explore their faith and meet other college students from around the country.

This year, the “Made for More” FOCUS National Conference was held in Orlando, FL, from Dec. 30 through Jan. 3. More than 3,500 college students from around the country gathered at the world’s largest Marriott resort for the half-party, half-retreat experience. Amid this sea of college students were 61 Duhawks, proud of their faith and their school.

Each day of the conference was packed full for the students. In addition to daily Mass and prayer, participants attended various talks and presentations. The speakers delved into topics like evangelization, international missions, relationships, exploring the cultural damage of moral relativism and practical ways to grow in one’s spiritual life. Speakers for this event included prominent figures like author Matthew Kelly, the Rev. Benedict Groeschel, the director of the Office for Spiritual Development of the Archdiocese of New York, and speaker Jeff Cavins.

It was extremely powerful to see so many young people in one place worshipping the Lord at Mass and at Eucharistic Adoration every day. Loras is a strong community with a very dynamic faith. We’re spoiled by the many rich ways our spiritual needs can be met, and it’s easy to take this for granted. So it’s great to see students from all over worshiping as one large community.

“When you come to a small Catholic school like Loras, you get used to the same people fully expressing their faith, which is great,” said sophomore Liz Kottkamp. “At conference, I got to see nearly 4,000 students willing to live their faith publicly, which was great because it really reminded me that the Church is bigger than the Loras community.”

At the heart of the “Made for More” theme is the Good Shepherd Discourse from the Gospel of John. Jesus says to His audience, “A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it to the fullest.” (John 10:10)

Using this metaphor of a shepherd and flock, Jesus calls himself both a “good shepherd” and “the gate” through which we enter the fold and have life. Today’s culture has many ways of enticing us away from Jesus’ flock. Cultural messages endorse a lot of instant gratification and reject anything that might infringe upon our “freedom” to do whatever we want, whenever we want, with whomever we want. It could be anything, really.

Underachieving, binge drinking, hooking up, greed, and apathy are just a sample of the temptations all around. These things are usually pleasurable in the moment and may be fun to keep up for awhile, but always leave us wounded, confused and lacking any lasting peace. They promise to make us feel good when we think that might be all there is to this life. We truly were made for more!

Each one of us is a daughter or son of a loving God, who became like us to be our good shepherd. He doesn’t force this on anyone, however, but allows us to reject Him if we choose. He desires each one of us to be under His watchful care so we might experience the fullness of life. As divine sons and daughters, we are not called to mediocrity, but to live a great life that ultimately is fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

Curtis Martin, who founded FOCUS 12 years ago, encouraged everyone at the conference with this Gospel message. His words ring true for everyone, and especially for any young student who is searching for a purpose in life. Remember: “We live in a world that offers you comfort. You were not made for comfort … you were made for greatness!”

With the arrival of Valentine’s Day, I’m sure that some of you were not too happy.

Gals, maybe some of you tried to ignore the day altogether, or perhaps you spent the day watching “chick flicks” and eating chocolate with your other single friends, lamenting the fact that there’s no man in your life. Guys, I have no idea what you’re thinking on that day.

Whatever your sentiments, I have news for you: Being single can be a blessing. Yes, you heard me right.

For many, it is a big goal to find a spouse, but it is not the most important thing in life. Life doesn’t begin when you meet your spouse. Life is now. If we live our single lives to the fullest, our married life (and life in general) will be so much richer. We should use this time of singleness to the fullest to explore new interests and nurture our gifts. Now is our time to find our corner of the world, how we are supposed to use our time, talents and gifts to better the world.

Who knows, maybe you’ll even find your soul mate as you go about this. Being single means that you can simply go about your day and make plans without thinking that you have to tell so-and-so or get his or her input before doing so. Thinking about going to graduate school or getting a job somewhere warmer? You don’t need to limit yourself to schools or jobs near your significant other. You are not defined by another person. You have the freedom to figure out who you really are. Sometimes it’s nice to be independent and fly solo.

Many people of college age are in serious relationships, engaged or already married. It is good to be able to have the advantage of watching other couples and relationships and seeing how they work things out. It is also good to see the problems that couples commonly encounter and need to work through. We singles have the advantage of seeing these things beforehand, and I think that we singles will have strengthened relationships down the road because of this.

There are definitely advantages to the single life and to waiting longer to meet the right person. Of course, it isn’t always easy to be single. Life sometimes seems like a waiting game. Some people have told me that it’s when they stopped looking that they finally met their spouse. maybe that means your heart is being saved for that special person you are meant to marry. I think that’s a beautiful thought.

Yes, that will be wonderful to find the person you’re meant to be with, but there is so much more to life than this. Don’t define your worth based on another person.

People who are in a (good) relationship, engaged, or married: I am so happy for you. Don’t worry, I am definitely not putting down couples. It must be wonderful to meet the right person. Until then, however, let’s remember that our lives don’t start when we meet Mr. or Mrs. Right.

Maybe we already know him or her and just don’t know that we’ll marry them. Maybe it will be another 20 years (or more) before our spouse comes into our life. Maybe you’re even called to live the single life. Let’s love life and live it to the fullest. May we be a blessing to others and, eventually, a blessing to the person who will bless our life abundantly.

It is now upon us. A brand-new semester has started, with new classes and maybe even new professors. No matter whether this is your second semester of college or your 10th, the semester is sure to bring new opportunities, challenges, and hopefully some new friends.

Maybe you’re finally student teaching, or you managed to snatch up that internship you really wanted. Each semester brings surprises. Before we know it, we’ll be buried under a pile of papers, deadlines and books. Of course, we also will have plenty of social commitments. We have friends to catch up with, events to attend, and places to go. Many of us hold down a job, play sports, or participate in clubs or organizations. I’m sure there are some who manage to do all three and schoolwork.

We are so blessed to be able to attend college. We are granted so many opportunities to better ourselves and the world. It is a time of much learning and expanding our horizons. Because of attending college, we will have more opportunities in the so-called “real world.” However, there is a dark side of college life that many people don’t talk about…The mental health of college students.  Depression and anxiety rates among college students are skyrocketing. It follows that the suicide rate of college students is rising as well.

Don’t overload yourself with stress. There is a little, two-letter word that would take barely any time to say, yet sometimes we forget that it exists. That word is “no.” Seriously, we don’t have to do everything that people ask us to do or that sounds interesting. Yes, it’s good to have a marketable resume. Yes, it’s good to be involved in clubs and organizations. It is a good thing to help better your community. However, is everything really necessary? What’s the point if you’re just running like a chicken with its head cut off from meeting to meeting? What’s the point if you are being neglected, and so unable to be as available as you could be to those you help or work with? We need to make time to truly live and simply be. If you lose your sense of self and your peace in the midst of everything, what’s the point?

Please, in the midst of everything, remember to take care of yourself. Take time to pray. Journal. Exercise. Do whatever it is that you love—the things that make you come alive. Make sure to carve special time for those you love, too. Let someone know if you are numb or hurting with depression, or if you are struggling with anxiety. Don’t be afraid to see a counselor. There is nothing wrong with that. Here at Loras, the Counseling Center is free! You also have many friends who love you, even if you don’t feel like it sometimes. We’re all in this together. Enjoy the surprises in store for you this semester, and remember not to neglect yourself in the midst of everything!